Slipping: Stories, Essays & Other Writing

Lauren Beukes

In her edgy and satiric debut collection, award-winning South African author Lauren Beukes (The Shining Girls) never holds back. Ranging from Johannesburg to outer space, Beukes is a fierce and captivating presence in the literary landscape.

Slipping: Stories, Essays & Other Writing

by Lauren Beukes

ISBN: 9781616962401

Published: November 2016

Available Format(s): Trade Paperback and Digital Books

Description

A Punk Lolita fighter-pilot rescues Tokyo from a marauding art installation. A young architect’s life is derailed by an inquisitive girl who happens to be a ghost. Unwitting recruits discover biohazardous plants on an inhospitable planet. Loyalty to a favorite product can be addictive when it gets under your skin.

In her edgy and satiric debut collection, award-winning South African author Lauren Beukes (The Shining Girls) never holds back. Ranging from Johannesburg to outer space, Beukes is a fierce and captivating presence in the literary landscape.

Praise for Slipping

A Book Riot 7 New Collections of Short fiction for SFF lovers|A Book Riot Wonderful Book of 2016
A Barnes & Noble Blog Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Collections and Anthologies of 2016
2016 Locus Recommended Reading List

“An art installation so tactile as to feel alive, a ghost that lurks alongside a promising architecture student, a girl gutted from the inside to make a premiere athlete: all stitched together into a punk tapestry of stories and other short pieces. Cape Town author Beukes (Zoo City, 2016, etc.) makes good use of her South African homeland, though she often turns Johannesburg and Cape Town into futuristic wastelands, as in “The Green,” a sci-fi militaristic nightmare of a short story, or “Riding with the Dream Patrol,” an unsettling look at where our cyberfuture could be headed (hint: bad places). There are also more straightforwardly bizarre entries, bordering on pure science fiction but never losing Beukes’ dark comedic edge, particularly “Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs,” wherein a fighter pilot (a woman, of course) must save Tokyo. Also, there are talking cats to spice things up (where there are hairballs, there must be cats). Some of the most effective pieces are the shortest, such as “Dial Tone,” where Beukes evokes the lonely desperation of her nameless narrator in less than four pages, as the character places crank calls and is often simply soothed by the dial tone. Or “Confirm/Ignore,” in which the narrator berates readers, and society at large, for their obsession with pop culture: “One day I get Bette Davis and Bettie Page confused. This is not my fault. It’s yours.” Her brief autobiographical pieces—on her first forays into journalism and a letter to her young daughter on the meaning of beauty—wrap up the slim volume nicely. Utterly bizarre and equally addictive, these pieces demonstrate that Beukes has only tapped the surface of her prodigious and wide-ranging talent with her novels.”
—Kirkus

“Whether they’re set in modern-day Johannesburg or on a planet circling a distant star, these powerful, beautifully written stories are always about today and the darkness of the human soul.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A fantastic, comical, alternate historical dieselpunk affair . . . filled with astonishing characters, fine dialogue, and an abundance of ideas and is packaged with John Coulthart’s cool Futurist-Constructivist-inspired graphics, an introduction by graphic novelist Warren Ellis, and an interview with the author.”
—Booklist

“South African writer Beukes (Zoo City; Broken Monsters) showcases her evolution as an author with these 26 pieces—mostly short stories with a few nonfiction entries at the end. Stories such as “Branded” recall Beukes’s debut, Moxyland, with its combination of cyberpunk elements and South African patois. That distinct regional flavor gets sanded out of some of the later tales, which hop among genres deftly. One of the more bizarre, “Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs,” features a cameo by magical realism author ­Haruki Murakami. Some selections are more likely to appeal to readers unfamiliar with Beukes. For example, “The Green” is a fantastically creepy sf story of grunt soldiers on a planet with invasive local flora. Another good starting point is the title story “Slipping,” which tells of a runner who has undergone extensive physical modifications. VERDICT Even the early stories, many set in Beukes’s native Johannesburg, have a rough energy and imagination that shows why she ­remains an author to watch.
—Library Journal

“Beukes writes with passion and a hot immediacy, employing demotic prose that often attains a gritty poetry. She favors capturing the explosive instant rather than the multi-linked chain of circumstances that constitute most stories.”
—Locus

“Shows off [Beukes’] skill across a range of genres . . . brilliant.”
—New York Journal of Books

“Lauren Beukes’s distinct voice and viewpoint have positioned her as one of the freshest, most exciting talents in writing today. Slipping will only further her reputation.”
—Cemetery Dance

“Being Beukes, hard topics are described and explored, and being Beukes one can easily trust in the author to be both sensitive, intelligent and eloquent throughout.”
—Ventureadlaxre

“Lauren Beukes is one of the most talented writers working today. Moving from witty to sad to horrifying, she makes it all seem effortless. We’re lucky to finally have her short work in one place.”
—Richard Kadrey, author of the Sandman Slim series and The Everything Box

“Lauren Beukes is one of the best we’ve got, and this fierce collection, showing the full breadth of her remarkable talent, is a pure dark joy.”
—Warren Ellis, author of Gun Machine and Transmetropolitan

“Lauren Beukes is a remarkable talent, that rare writer who can go in any direction she desires and always deliver. In Slipping you have the chance to see her at her most versatile and powerful. A wonderful collection from one of the strongest voices in the game.”
—Michael Koryta, author of So Cold the River and Those Who Wish Me Dead

“Slipping is a dizzying array of stories, a “greatest hits” from a prolific and imaginative writer. There’s a mash of scenarios and genres from alternative histories to Manga, cyberpunk to feminist fairy tale. It’s kick-ass speculative fiction with brains and heart. 10/10 stars.”
—Starburst

“Lauren Beukes is one of the most creative, thought-provoking writers working today, and Slipping puts us right in the bloody depths of her brain and gives us an intimate tour. This book writhes with ideas and undeniable energy.”
—Steph Cha, author of Dead Soon Enough

“While each story in this collection is unique, they all have that one piece in common that make me so passionate about [Beukes’s] previous novels—there’s a sense of some underlying real world threat in even the most intensely science fiction story lines. Much like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the reader is left with feelings of unease, that though what you’ve just read is fiction, it still hits too close to home to not make you nervous.”
—Pages and Pints

“The dazzling short pieces collected in Slipping, which range from reportage to tender bits of personal reflection to weird sci-fi horror, together serve to confirm the impression Beukes already created in her novels: this is a writer who can do anything.”
—Ben H. Winters, author of Underground Airlines and the Last Policeman series

“Bold, brazen, and brilliant—now this is a collection to die for. Beukes fearlessly skewers personal relationships, social injustice and pop culture (among other things), and every story is a masterclass in flair, wit and fresh ideas.”
—Sarah Lotz, author of The Three and Day Four

“Slipping is a rare surprise, and one that demonstrates Beukes wide-ranging talent. Whether she’s writing about corporate branded future punks and celebrants, or the downtrodden casual menaces of daily life, from a compilation of tweets to a handful of remarkable non-fiction essays, her stories prove, repeatedly, that she is a masterful writer and that she has a voice that absolutely must be heard. Hold on tight to this one—you do not want it to slip away.”
—Michael Patrick Hicks, author of Emergence

“Everyone should be reading this author and start tracking her wonderful talent with characters.”
—Brad K. Horner

“Not only is [Beukes] quite adept at the strange science that surrounds time travel, a la The Shining Girls, she’s quite skilled at crafting the perfect and perfectly horrible short work . . . literature in all its darkness and beauty.”
—Drunk in a Graveyard

“Slipping is a diverse and fascinating collection of stories and essays. It contained some of the most thought provoking pieces I have read in a long time.”
—Femlitica

“Lauren Beukes, judging from these tales, is one of the best fictional chroniclers of modern life per se.”
—See the Elephant

“If you have read [Beukes] before, you definitely need to get on it with this book, whether you like science fiction, fantasy, contemporary, or just plain weird.”
—This Ain’t Livin’

“Based in Greek myth, Summerlong is Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series for adults and is equally compelling. Here, just as Abe, Joanna, and Lily become strangely mesmerized by Lioness, so too the reader becomes so drawn into this novel that it is impossible to put aside.”
—Curious Mind Garden

“Slick and stylish, Beukes’ visions of the future both entertain and alarm in the way that great science fiction should.”
—Pop Culture Beast

“Each of these stories are wildly authentic, vastly entertaining, and a constant focus on the darkness in this world.”
—For the Love of Words

“Lauren Beukes has established herself as one of the genre’s most exciting voices. The stories assembled here not only show off her eclectic range of influences and interests, but the strength of her voice, her passion for her subjects, and that fantastic blend of anger, analysis, sensitivity and wit.”
—Sci Fi Now

“Beukes captures the essence of what it means to be alive in all its many forms, as the life force of the characters tears itself right off the page and meets the reader head on.”
—Strange Alliances

“Whether the story takes place in present day, the near future, or somewhere else entirely, through sharp use of dialogue and description, readers instantly get a handle on her characters as they experience fear, love, hate, joy, confusion, exploitation, and adventure. The stories are funny and freaky, sad and scary. They are bold and beautiful, violent and vibrant. 10/10 stars.”
—Fantasy Faction

“Slipping is a stunning, diverse collection of genre-spanning short fiction by one of South Africa’s best speculative fiction authors.”
—Worlds in Ink

“This is an excellent collection of stories, essays, and tidbits.”
—Fat Robot

“I knew going in that Beukes was a powerfully talented wordsmith; Slipping broadened my appreciation more than I was expecting. Very highly recommended.”
—Christopher East

“…a lively mix of 19 stories, a set of twitter mash-up stories, a poem, and five non-fiction pieces.”
—Locus, Year in Review

“This was hit after hit of what I like best about [Beukes’] writing: sly, sharp digs at who we are, who we want to be, and the tricks we fall for, all with a gritty, near-future cyberpunk backdrop.”
—Rhian Bowley, author of The Dream Feeders

“Lauren Beukes is a fantastic writer, no doubt about that.”
—Fiction Fantastic

About the Author

Lauren Beukes (The Shining Girls) is an internationally award-winning and bestselling South African author. Her novels include Broken Monsters, Zoo City, and Moxyland. Her graphic novel work includes Vertigo’s Survivor’s Club, the Fablesspin-off Fairest, and Wonder Woman. Beukes’s nonfiction has been published in magazines including The Hollywood Reporter, The Sunday Times, Marie Claire, and Elle.

Her fiction has won praise from the likes of Stephen King, George R. R. Martin, James Ellroy, Gillian Flynn, and her writing has been translated into twenty-six languages. Her books have been regularly featured in best of the year roundups by outlets such as NPR, Amazon, and the Los Angeles Times. Amongst her many honors, Beukes has received the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the University of Johannesburg prize, and the Strand Critics Choice Award. She lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

Praise for The Shining Girls

“Thus begins The Shining Girls, Lauren Beukes’s strong contender for the role of this summer’s universal beach read. Ms. Beukes is a South African whose earlier works have been closer to hard-core science fiction, but The Shining Girls is pure thriller.”
—New York Times

“I’m all over it.”
—Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

“Utterly original, beautifully written, and I must say, it creeped the holy bejasus out of me. This is something special.”
—Tana French, author of In the Woods

“Talented Cape Town writer Lauren Beukes has managed to turn such borrowing and theft into a triumph in her new novel,The Shining Girls. It’s her third book, and a marvelous narrative feat that spans the history of Chicago from the 1930s to the 1990s.”
—NPR

“Clever story, smart prose”
—Stephen King, author of The Stand

“[Beukes] is so profusely talented—capable of wit, darkness, and emotion on a single page—that a blockbuster seems inevitable . . . The Shining Girls marks her arrival as a major writer of popular fiction.”
—USA Today

“The premise is pure Stephen King, but Beukes gives it an intricate, lyrical treatment all her own.”
—Time

“Unreservedly recommended.”
—Joe Hill, author of Heart-Shaped Box

“One of the summer’s hottest books.”
—Wired

“Very smart . . . completely kick-ass. Beukes’ handling of the joints between the realistic and the fantastic is masterful, and those are always my favorite parts, in this kind of story.”
—William Gibson, author of Neuromancer

“Brilliant. A book about the duel of two fabulously realized characters. A triumph.”
—Independent

“Imagine Poe and Steinbeck in a knife fight where Poe wins and writes Jack the Ripper’s version of The Grapes of Wrath.The Shining Girls is even scarier than that.”
—Richard Kadrey, author of Sandman Slim

Praise for Zoo Story

“Beukes’s energetic noir phantasmagoria, the winner of this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award, crackles with original ideas.”
—Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times Book Review

“Zoo City is a fabulous outing from an extremely promising writer… [it] has so much fabulous wordplay, imaginative settings and scenarios, and such a dark and cynical heart that I was totally riveted by it.”
—Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother

“If our words are bullets, Lauren Beukes is a marksman in a world of drunken machine-gunners, firing her ideas and images into us with a sly and deadly accuracy, wasting nothing, never missing.”
—Bill Willingham, creator of Fables

“[A]n act of unadulterated literature.”
—Matthew du Plessis, Times Live

“At times the witty and lyrical prose is sheer magic, the story captivating and the characters exotic, cruel and beautiful while the backdrop of Johannesburg seethes with hidden, lurking dangers around every corner, Zoo City is quite simply captivating.”
—SciFi & Fantasy Books

“We all know there is a fine line between genius and madness. So it is with Zoo City . . . a story that is remarkable for both its inventiveness and the sharpness of its writing.”
—Jason Baki, Kamvision

“Lauren Beukes brings to Zoo City the observant, cynical eye for the intersection of media, business, and pop culture that animated her debut, Moxyland, and pairs it with a funny, colloquial, and casually poetic first-person narrator and thriller pacing to take urban fantasy to the next level.”
—Ideomancer

Praise for Moxyland

“The world Beukes has invented is both eerily familiar and creepily different.”
—Cosmopolitan

“You don’t have to be an SF aficionado to love this novel that is fast, brimming with original ideas and deadly serious.”
—Mail & Guardian

“Beukes’s stunningly original sci-fi thriller chills and thrills to the last breath.”
—Heat Magazine

Praise for Broken Monsters

“Beukes’ captivating Broken Monsters defies the standard tropes of the serial killer genre to become a thoroughly modern, supernatural thriller . . . [it] holds up a mirror to those who rabidly hit refresh in search of more dehumanizing gore and those who wish to be a star in the atrocity exhibition.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Never exploitative, never superficial, never uncomplicated: Beukes shows how horror can be the best way to explain our unbelievable reality. She uses the mode like the knife that opens the oyster.”
—The Guardian

“ . . . this wickedly unpleasant thriller has a rare and intriguing capacity to make the reader think.”
—The Telegraph